
DATE: Sunday, May 4, 1997                   TAG: 9705010210

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 20   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: ART BEAT 

SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle 

                                            LENGTH:  101 lines

ARTIST'S STYLE CATCHES EYES AT ARTS COUNCIL SHOW

I'm an Everett Tate fan. A self-proclaimed Tate addict.

I remember seeing his work at a self-portrait show sponsored by the Ghost Fleet Gallery in Nags Head a year or so ago. I was a judge. I chose Tate's painting to be one of the winners. My two co-judges thought I was crazy. I insisted.

Tate speaks to me. That's all I know.

His work is primitive. His paint application sometimes is lumpy in spots where I'm not so sure it should be lumpy. His subject matter is simplistic and his colors so basic, he's easy to overlook as a serious artist.

That's a mistake.

I tried to explain my fascination with Tate - whose painting ``Green Flash'' currently is on display at the Dare County Arts Council's Spring Art Show - to a friend. At the end of a lengthy diatribe about creativity and purity - that I'm sure sounded like a bunch of abstract mumbo jumbo - I turned to him and said: ``Do you know what I mean?'' He replied: ``I can feel Everett's joy when I look at his work.''

I cheered.

``Green Flash'' provided an oasis for me. Freedom from an overbearing intellect. Joy.

And yet Tate, a 72-year-old former shrimp trawler captain who lives in Nags Head, chooses to paint in an abstract style because it forces one to think.

``I even like that I can't understand what it is,'' he said of the abstract style. ``I'm more interested in something that you got to look at for a little while.''

``Green Flash'' consists of several strips of color: black, red, orange, yellow, green and blue. What look to be boats are part of the black strata, silhouetted against a flaming horizon. The title comes from years of watching sunrises on the water.

``I've seen many shades,'' Tate said. ``I was always amazed by the green flash just before the sun comes up.''

Tate's painting is keeping good company at the art show.

It's one of over 70 fine works on display through Memorial Day at the Central Square Gallery in Nags Head.

Apparently the Virginian judge, Betty Lockhart Anglin, was not as taken with Tate's work as I was. But 13 other lucky competitors walked away with monetary prizes amounting to $2,000.

Edith Deltgen of Colington won first place with a sculpture that's a combination of cast arms and sea shells embedded in driftwood titled ``Waves.'' A large watercolor by John Silver titled ``Relationships'' took second place. And third was awarded to Ocracoke watercolorist Russell Yerkes for ``Change of Command.'' Ten merit awards also were given at the show.

Many styles are showcased at the Arts Council's spring show, from the classic to the comic. Lynn Greskevitch's ``Rhythm and Repetition'' and Pat Hayward's ``City Scape'' masterfully contrast geometric forms in photographs to create airtight designs.

Lezlie Culberson invites viewers to journey back to the womb in her three-dimensional panels veneered with textural fetus photographs. In ``Lifeline'' by Linda R. Crassons, one also journeys to an inner sanctum to reflect on the life cycle. Flowing shapes resembling funnels and body organs ebb and flow in a disturbing yet strangely peaceful drawing.

Bruce Gibson's aluminum bent wire sculpture, ``Praying in Pigtails'' is a scream - as is Renee Landry's untitled drawing of a poorly postured female figure in 1950s housewife garb with the word ``wrong'' scrawled in the upper left corner.

The show's emphasis is on two-dimensional works accented by just a handful of stone sculpture, metal jewelry and ceramics. The show is remarkably unselfconscious as a whole. And it's one of the most wide stretching venues I've seen to date.

You could put this show on the road and I can guarantee it would not be pegged as beach art.

The artists dug far deeper than their sandy roots to produce these works. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE

Everett Tate's ``Green Flash'' is one of 71 works on display at the

Dare County Arts Council Spring Art Show. His work is primitive. His

paint application sometimes is lumpy in spots where I'm not so sure

it should be lumpy. His subject matter is simplistic and his colors

so basic, he's easy to overlook as a serious artist. That's a

mistake.

Graphic

WHO WON WHAT

Winners of the Dare County Arts Council's Spring Show include:

$500 First Place: Edith Deltgen, sculpture